Always Carry a Sketchbook

Feb 9, 2019

I like to keep a sketchbook with me wherever I go. Pocket-sized sketchbooks are
highly portable, and you’re almost guaranteed to have something to draw on if
you combine them with your wallet. It’s a great way to kill 10 minutes waiting
for the bus, and the size of the page makes it much less daunting than a
full-sized sketchbook.

Types of drawing

Over the years I’ve found I have 3 modes of sketching that I get into:

Drawing from life

Zen drawing

Diagrammatic drawing

Drawing from life is the most familiar – looking at something and trying to
translate it onto paper. This is a very active style of drawing that requires
critical thought about composition, perspective, spatial relationships, and
manipulating the tools to reflect qualities of light and atmosphere in the
drawing. I try to do at least 2 hours of this style of drawing during each week
to keep my observation skills sharp.

Zen drawing is like doodling – starting with a line and letting it wander. This
sketch is rejuvenating, and helps me unwind and meditate. Typically these
drawing are highly textural. I’ll start with a basic shape composition and then
dive right into textural rendering, playing with imagined light sources, but
mostly just experimenting with making different types of marks, or playing with
a repeating pattern.

Diagrammatic drawing is like visualizing an abstract concept. Sometimes this
might include words and flowcharts, but it’s more of a tool to show how to build
something. Sometimes I create diagrams of how I would organize some code, a
musical instrument, or a image processing algorithm.

Revisiting your sketchbooks

Dusting off a box of sketchbooks and looking through old ideas is something I
could spend hours doing. Whenever I do Spring cleaning and I find my box, I take
a break to flip through the pages of old sketchbooks to see how my drawings have
developed or to get inspired by ideas I had forgotten.

If you revisit your old sketchbooks, you may find an idea that inspires you
enough to translate it onto a larger page or into a different medium. The
benefit of sketching is that you end up with a backlog to visit whenever you
have a mental block. It’s also very fun to compare an old drawing with an
updated version when you’re skills have increased. Try it out!